Abstract The post-Caledonian development of the West Orkney Basin is regularly cited as a classic example of basement-influenced rifting. This paper presents the first detailed multidisciplinary analysis of the three-dimensional (3D) geometries and distribution of post-Caledonian faults in onshore northernmost Scotland, examining their relationships to basement fabrics and comparing them to rift-related structures developed offshore in the West Orkney Basin. Two phases of rift-related faulting are distinguished: 1) Devonian ENE–WSW extension localized in the east of the basin and related to regional sinistral transtension along the Great Glen Fault; and 2) Permo-Triassic NW–SE extension focused to the west of the basin and probably contemporaneous with movements along the Minch Fault. A complex North Coast Transfer Zone is developed along the northern Scottish coast linking Mesozoic rifts that reactivated Caledonian structures in the West Orkney Basin (Naver Thrust) to those bounding the North Minch Basin (Outer Hebrides Fault Zone). Polymodal faulting patterns are widespread in onshore exposures. Fault patterns vary due to changes in the obliquity between regional rifting vectors and variably orientated pre-existing structures in each basement terrane. The geometric complexity and spatial variations in fault patterns onshore can be correlated with changes in basement structures, despite limited direct reactivation of pre-existing fabrics.

Abstract We present analysis of new gravity data to produce a 2D crustal and upper mantle density model across the northern Main Ethiopian Rift (NMER). The magmatic NMER is believed to represent the transitional stage between continental and oceanic rifting. We conclude that beneath our profile, magma emplacement into the upper crust occurs in the form of a 20 km-wide body beneath the axis of the rift, and a 12 km-wide off-axis body beneath the NW margin of the rift. These are coincident with Quaternary volcanic chains, anomalies in seismic velocity and conductivity identified by the Ethiopia Afar Geoscientific Lithospheric Experiment (EAGLE) along the same profile. We also identify a shallow, high-density body beneath the axial Boset volcano interpreted as either a dyke zone or a magma reservoir that may have fed Quaternary felsic volcanism. Our results provide supporting evidence for a c . 15 km-thick mafic underplate layer beneath the northwestern rift flank, imaged by the EAGLE controlled-and passive-source seismic data. A relatively low-density upper mantle is required beneath the underplate and the rift to produce the long wavelength features of the gravity anomaly. The resulting model suggests that the lithosphere to the SE of the rift is unaffected by rifting processes. Our results combined with those from other EAGLE studies show that magmatic processes dominate rifting in the NMER.